Apparatus for cone belt return motion in a fly frame



y 28, 1968 HIDEJIRO ARAKI ET AL 3,385,124

APPARATUS FOR CONE BELT RETURN MOTION IN A FLY FRAME Filed Nov. 8, 1966 United States Patent 3,385,124 APPARATUS FOR CONE BELT RETURN MOTION IN A FLY FRAME Hidejiro Araki, Aichi-gun, and Keuji Tsujioka, Kariya,

In a conventional fly frame, it has been customary to provide an apparatus for returning the cone belt (the belt connecting the upper and bottom cone drums) toward the bobbin winding initiating position, shifting it along the cone drums upon the full bobbin stopping of the machine, ready for initiating the winding of the new bobbins. This invention relates to an improved apparatus for cone belt return motion in such fly frame.

In effecting the return motion of the cone belt, the bottom drum is lifted to slacken the cone belt by manipulating a hand wheel. Then, another hand wheel is manipulated to actuate a belt shifter to return the slackened belt toward the bobbin winding initiating position, shifting it along the cone drums. Upon starting the winding of the new bobbins, said hand wheel for slackening the belt is manipulated in reverse direction, thereby lowering the bottom cone drum to tension the cone belt. Said two hand wheels being disposed apart from each other, the manipulation thereof would be a troublesome burden on the operator.

The principal object of the invention is to provide an improved apparatus for return motion of the cone belt, whereby the operators labor may be minimized.

Another object consists in constructing the parts and arranging the elements of the apparatus in a manner whereby the foregoing object is attained. Still another 0 object of the invention is to provide an automatic apparatus for return motion of the cone belt which may be associated with the existing fly frame in use by replacing the existing manually controlled apparatus by the improved automatic apparatus according to the invention.

Other and further objects of the invention will be obvious upon an understanding of the illustrative embodiment about to be described, and various advantages not referred to herein will occur to one skilled in the art upon employment of the invention in practice. In the accompanying drawing:

FIG. 1 is a perspective view, partly in section, of the mechanism constructed according to the present invention; and

FIG. 2 illustrates schematically a preferred form of a differential gear mechanism employed in the present invention.

Referring now to FIG. 1, the reference numeral 1 designates a top cone drum of a fly frame, which drives a bottom cone drum 1 through a cone belt 2. The cone belt 2 is adapted to be shifted from the larger diameter end of the top cone drum 1 toward the smaller diameter end thereof, thereby to obtain gradual speed reduction of the bottom cone drum 1 according to the increase of the amount of the roving wound upon the bobbin. A ratchet wheel 3 is shown as adapted to be actuated by pawls 4 and 4', and said ratchet wheel 3 is adapted to be freed from said pawls 4 and 4 at the moment the changeover of the engagement of said pawls is effected according to change-over of the vertical traverse motion of the bobbin rail (not shown). The ratchet wheel 3 is operatively connected to a vertical shaft 6 through a train of gears 5, and said shaft 6 is adapted to rotate in an anticlockwise direction (indicated by arrow I) as well as clockwise direction (indicated by arrow II). The shaft 6 has a tendency of being rotated in the direction of. arrow I as acted by the gravity of a weight 7. A gear 8 fixed on the shaft 6 is meshing with a long horizontal rack 9 which is connected at its other end to a belt shifter 10. In FIG. 1 the cone belt 2 is shown as positioned at the argest diameter end of the bottom cone drum 1' which corresponds to the full bobbin stop motion position of the machine.

In a conventional fly frame, to return the belt 2 from the position shown in FIG. 1 toward the smaller diameter end of the bottom cone drum 1 corresponding to the bobbin winding initiating position, it has been necessary to manipulate a hand wheel 12 on a shaft 11, lifting the bottom drum 1 by turning rockable bearing arms 13 and 13 upwardly, so as to lift the bottom cone drum 1' supported by said arms, then to actuate a belt shifting hand wheel 27 on the shaft 6, thereby operating the belt shifter 16' so as to move the belt 2 to the bobbin winding initiating position. Then, the hand wheel 12 had to be reversely manipulated so as to lower the bottom cone drum 1' to effect required tensioning of the belt 2.

In view of the above mentioned disadvantages of manipulating the hand wheel, according to the present invention, the shafts 6 and 11 are connected through a differential gear mechanism hereinafter to be described, which is so designed that the return motion of the cone belt 2 can be effected merely by giving rotation on the input side of said differential gear mechanism.

Now, the said differential gear mechanism may be constructed in various manners, whereas in the embodiment shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, a shaft 23 having a hand wheel 24 or driven from a motor M carries a worm gear 14. This worm gear 14 meshes with a worm wheel 15 which forms the input side of rotation. Gears a and d loosely mounted on a shaft 16 are on the output sides of rotation. Assuming that the worm wheel 15 on the input side is rotated in the direction of arrow II at r.p.m. of In, the bevel gears a and d on the output sides will tend to be rotated in the same direction at r.p.m. of n =2n=2l1 and n =n n respectively, as driven from a gear 0. However, in view of the fact that a transmission device comprising such as a pulley 16' on the shaft 16 and a belt 17 is in driving connection with a pulley 18 on the shaft 6, and in view of the fact that the bevel gear a tending to rotate in the direction for returning the tensioned belt 2 toward the bobbin winding initiating position must overcome the gravity of the weight 7, it will be seen that said bevel gear a is under burden of extremely large load. Under the circumstance, it will result in this that the bevel gear d which is under lighter load is rotated at r.p.m. of n =2n Thus, a pulley 19 which is integral with the boss of the gear at will transmit the rotation to a pulley 21 on the shaft 11 through a belt 20, thereby rotating the shaft 11 in the direction of arrow II. The lower end portion of said shaft 11 is connected to the free end of the arm 13 by screw threaded fit, so that by rotation of said shaft 11 the arms 13 and 13' are turned upwardly, thereby lifting the bottom cone drum 1' supported by said arms, and the cone belt 2 is slackened. 22 is a stopper collar for limiting the upward movement of the arms 13 and 13'. In the above mentioned manner the cone belt I. will now be in sufficiently slackened condition, giving no substantial resistance to the action of the belt shifter 10 actuated by the worm wheel 15. In view of the above, the rotation of the worm wheel 15 may now rotate the shaft 6 in the direction of arrow II, so that the cone belt 2 is shifted toward the bobbin winding initiating position and, at the same time, the weight 7 is lifted. When the operation of the machine is started, the belt 2 can be readily shifted along the rotating top cone drum 1. At the end of the shifting movement of the belt 2 to the bobbin winding initiating position, the rotation of the motor M or the hand wheel 24 will be stopped as actuated by a suitable limit switch or a stopper (not shown). When the rotation of the worm gear 14 is reversed to rotate the worm wheel 15 in the direction of arrow I for the purpose of tensioning the belt 2, the direction of rotation of the bevel gear a corresponding to direction of arrow I will be transmitted to the bevel gear d at r.p.m. of n =2n in the direction of arrow I, since the ratchet wheel 25 is controlled by the pawl 26. As a result, the shaft 11 rotates in the direction of arrow I, thereby lowering the arms 13 and 13'. Thus the cone belt 2 will be in its tensioned state at the bobbin winding initiating position. Said limit switch or hand wheel (not shown) is actuated at the time the tension of the belt 2 is maximum, thereby stopping the motor M or the hand wheel 24. In the above manner, the return motion of the belt 2 is completed.

The shaft 6 is provided with a clutch 28 which is normally disengaged during the operation of the machine. A solenoid 29 is adapted to be put into operation for making engagement of said clutch to put the pulley 18 into operation at the time of returning the slackened belt 2 toward the bobbin winding initiating position.

While the shaft 11 is shown in FIG. 1 as connected to the free end of the rockable arm 13 by means of screw threaded fit, it will be understood that such connection could be made by means of a suitable link system.

From the foregoing description, it will be seen that according to the present invention there is provided a differential gear mechanism having two output sides of rotation derived from one input side of rotation, that by providing means for connecting one output side of rotation to the mechanism for slackening and tensioning the cone belt, Whereas the other output side of rotation is connected to the mechanism for shifting said belt, and that the power transmission to the input side of rotation may be appropriately made, for instance by the manipulation of a hand wheel or by means of a motor. Thus, it will be seen that the present invention accomplishes a new and advantageous result in an extremely simple and practical manner.

The invention has been described with respect to a preferred specific embodiment. It is apparent however that modification may be made by those skilled in the art without departing from the scope of the invention as embraced by the appended claims. For instance, while the differential gear mechanism comprising bevel gears is shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, this differential gear mechanism may be so designed that it comprises the spur gears instead of bevel gears.

What we claim is:

1. In a fiy frame having a top cone drum, a bottom cone drum, a cone belt connecting said top and bottom cone drums, and a belt shifter for shifting said cone belt along said cone drums, an apparatus for cone belt return motion comprising a differential gear mechanism having one input member and two output members, cone drum lifting and lowering means for slackening and tensioning said cone belt and connected to one of said two output members of said differential gear mechanism, means for actuating said belt shifter connected to the other of said output members of the differential gear mechanism, and reversible rotating drive means driveably connected to the input member of said differential gear mechanism.

2. Apparatus for cone belt return motion in a fiy frame as recited in claim 1, wherein a gear forming one of the two output members of the differential gear mechanism is connected to the cone drum lifting and lowering means, and another gear forming the other of said two output members of the differential gear mechanism is connected to means for actuating said belt shifter.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 745,030 11/ 1903 Wingate 74-2.42.3 XR 1,089,152 3/1914 Pletz 74-242.4 2,705,892 4/1955 Yeager 74242.3

FRED C. MATTERN, ]R., Primary Examiner.

J. A. WONG, Assistant Examiner. 

1. IN A FLY FRAME HAVING A TOP CONE DRUM, A BOTTOM CONE DRUM, A CONE BELT CONNECTING SAID TOP AND BOTTOM CONE DRUMS, AND A BELT SHIFTER FOR SHIFTING SAID CONE BELT ALONG SAID CONE DRUMS, AN APPARATUS FOR CONE BELT RETURN MOTION COMPRISING A DIFFERENTIAL GEAR MECHANISM HAVING ONE INPUT MEMBER AND TWO OUTPUT MEMBERS, CONE DRUM LIFTING AND LOWERING MEANS FOR SLACKENING AND TENSIONING SAID CONE BELT AND CONNECTED TO ONE OF SAID TWO OUTPUT MEMBERS OF SAID DIFFERENTIAL GEAR MECHANISM, MEANS FOR ACTUATING SAID BELT SHIFTER CONNECTED TO THE OTHER OF SAID 